David R. Adler is a music writer and educator, guitarist/vocalist and longtime New Yorker now living in northern England. In December 2024 he became the editor of JazzTimes, helping to revive the dormant but highly respected brand. David is also the editor of The Jazz Omnibus: 21st-Century Photos and Writings by Members of the Jazz Journalists Association (Cymbal Press). From 2010-2017 he taught jazz history at the Aaron Copland School of Music (Queens College-CUNY) and appeared as a guest lecturer at New York University, Hunter College, Baruch College and the 92nd Street Y.

From 2017-2022 David lived in Athens, Georgia, continuing to write as well as perform solo and with local musicians. He also completed coursework and practicum fieldwork in K-12 Music Education, earning his teaching certificate from the University of Georgia’s Hugh Hodgson School of Music. In July 2022 he relocated with his family to Wakefield, just south of Leeds in the UK, where he works part-time as an itinerant guitar instructor in West Yorkshire primary and secondary schools.

David’s work has appeared in Premier Guitar, JazzTimes, NPR Music, The Village Voice, Bandcamp Daily, Stereophile, WBGO.org, WRTI.org, Rungh, Tides: A Publication of SAADA, Jazz Artistry Now, The New York City Jazz Record, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Weekly, Down Beat, Time Out New York, City Arts, Jazziz, The New York Times, The New Republic, Slate, The Forward, The Sondheim Review, Democratiya (UK), Fairmont Magazine (Canada),  La Tempestad (Mexico), GEO (Germany),  New Music Box,  All Music Guide,  Global Rhythm, Signal to Noise, Coda, Jewish Currents and more. He has also written liner notes for such influential artists as Dave Douglas, Harold Mabern, Al Foster, Wallace Roney, David Binney, Orrin Evans, Ryan Keberle, Dayna Stephens and Alex Sipiagin, among many others.

David has spoken as a panelist at the Strathmore Music Center, the EMP Pop Conference, the Literature/Film Association Conference, the Detroit Jazz Festival, the Vision Festival and the International Association for Jazz Education (IAJE) Conference.

He has moderated panels for Symphony Space, the Philadelphia Music Project, Jazz Connect, FONT Music and the Jazz Journalists Association (JJA), and conducted pre-concert artist discussions at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, the Ars Nova Workshop concert series and the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music. Onstage, David has interviewed Jason Moran, Joe Lovano, Chris Potter, Ravi Coltrane, Vijay Iyer, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Mike Reed, Jeff Parker and John Hollenbeck.

For roughly seven years David served as editor of Jazz Notes, the former quarterly publication of the Jazz Journalists Association, helping to oversee its transition to the web currently as JJA News. David’s efforts with the JJA, in addition to editing The Jazz Omnibus, have included mentoring and education initiatives as well as public advocacy on behalf of journalists, musicians and the jazz idiom in general.

In an earlier life, David studied jazz guitar with Jim Hall, John Abercrombie, Steve Khan, Vic Juris and others, earning a BFA in 1990 from the New School program in Jazz and Contemporary Music. He went on to work with a wide variety of artists in settings including jazz, rock/pop, gospel, cabaret, musical theater and more. He gigged extensively with Tom Kitt — now a Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner for “Next to Normal” — and performed in some of New York’s best-known venues, including Avery Fisher Hall, Roseland, Joe’s Pub, Fez, Mercury Lounge, the Knitting Factory and the Living Room. As a member of the East Village band Keeta Speed (1996-1999), he recorded with the famed producers Dave McDonald (Portishead), Patrick Dillett (They Might Be Giants) and Dave Fridmann (Flaming Lips).